question about lymph nodes

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jodiel1
jodiel1 Member Posts: 51
edited June 2014 in IDC (Invasive Ductal Carcinoma)

hello my mum was dx with bc in aug. she had mastectomy 24th sept. she has idc motifocal 5cm grade 3. not sure about stage she had 2 nodes removed one was possitve. so now shes got to have op to remove them all. is this what usually happens? because i thought if only 1 was possitive they wouldnt need to remove them all? her margins must of been clear i suppose because they never suggest more surgery to the chest wall or anything?! its so confusing cause she doesnt want to ask lots of questions but i would like to no more as i have done a lot of research on the net.

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  • idaho
    idaho Member Posts: 1,187
    edited October 2009

    They will take all of the nodes because the cancer might be in more nodes and they want to get it all out.  They don't know if it is in more nodes until they take them out.  Maybe you can go with her to help ask questions....?  Or maybe she just doesn't want to know- some people are like that- it is easier to handle not knowing every little detail.  And yes if her margins were close or not clean they would probably suggest more surgery.  Tami

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  • Sunflower64
    Sunflower64 Member Posts: 166
    edited October 2009

    hi,

    i only had 1 node positive and i only had 10 total taken out for testing.

    diane

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  • jodiel1
    jodiel1 Member Posts: 51
    edited October 2009

    was all your other nodes negative? x

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  • unklezwifeonty
    unklezwifeonty Member Posts: 1,710
    edited October 2009

    Jodie,

    During the mastectomy itself, they test the sentinel nodes (first nodes that the tumor area drains into) during surgery itself. If these turn out to be positive, they remove the rest of the nodes also. In 5-15% cases, often because the involvement in the sentinel nodes is very small, the frozen section (the quick test during the surgery) is negative but the permanent section (the proper test done in next 2-4 days) is positive. It sounds like thats what happened during your mother's surgery. In such cases it is normal to have to go back to get the other nodes out.

    Oddly enough, in my case the same thing almost happened. The 2 sentinel nodes tested negative on frozen section. But the surgeon had a sneaky suspicion and removed 7 more right then. Later in permanent section they found 1 of the sentinel nodes had a 0.2mm cancer. All the other nodes were clear.

    Regarding margins, I'd suggest you ask the surgeon about the margins and have him/her give you a copy of the pathology report. Do not assume anything even if mom just goes with the flow.

    Good luck and I hope they don't find any more positive nodes.

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